TikTok Is a National Security Danger, written by Michael Lucci, the founder and CEO of State Armor, was recently published in Real Clear Policy. In his op-ed, Lucci highlights the potential national security risks associated with TikTok, the popular social media app, and notes that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been known to use information warfare to weaken the United States, and argues that severing ties between TikTok and the CCP is necessary to protect American interests and values.
In his op-ed, Michael writes:
TikTok is aptly described as the “fentanyl version” of the ByteDance application suite. Just like the Communist Party ships fentanyl to the United States to poison and kill Americans, so too do they ship the fentanyl version of this app to poison young American minds.
Just this fall, we witnessed a surge of content on TikTok sympathizing with Osama bin Laden and justifying the killing of nearly 3,000 American citizens on 9/11. TikTok has long disseminated jihadist propaganda and other harmful information, and as FBI Director Christopher Wray has warned, the CCP has the ability to control TikTok’s recommendation algorithm, giving it the power to manipulate and promote select content for influence operations. The Office of the Director for National Intelligence has similarly raised the alarm in a report released this month, noting that the CCP has deliberately employed TikTok accounts run by a PRC propaganda arm to target U.S. candidates from both political parties.
In no uncertain terms, the United States is now giving the Chinese Communist Party, which seeks to destroy America’s security and economic might, the ability to engage Americans directly and distort their views about our country and a myriad of other issues relevant to American health and safety. We are allowing an adversary direct, scaled access to our nation’s best resource: our young people. TikTok content is imbued with communist propaganda to stunt young Americans’ aspirations, intellectual growth, and mental health, all for the purpose of weakening our society.
Read the full version of TikTok Is a National Security Danger on Real Clear Policy’s website.
